The Mind Robber is the second serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from 14 September to 12 October 1968.
The serial is set outside of time and space in a world where fictional characters and mythological creatures including Medusa, the Minotaur and the Unicorn exist.
In the serial, the English fiction writer "the Master" (Emrys Jones), aware of his own advancing age, tries to recruit the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) to take over his role as the creative power in this realm.
After defeating the Dominators and starting off a volcanic eruption, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves and the TARDIS in the path of a lava flow.
Travelling through the location, the Doctor encounters several people, such as Lemuel Gulliver, and Captain Karkus, a fictional superhero from Zoe's time.
It turns out that he is in fact an Earth man abducted and brought to the land of fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge.
Location filming for The Mind Robber took place in June 1968 at Harrison's Rocks in Sussex and Kenley Aerodrome in Croydon.
[4] The white robots that close in on Jamie and Zoe in the void outside the TARDIS had been loaned from a previous use in the British science fiction television series Out of the Unknown.
[5] Bernard Horsfall later played a Time Lord in The War Games (1969),[6] Taron in Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin (1976), all were directed by David Maloney.
and set pieces (the mental battle for control of Jamie and Zoe) makes this one of the most memorable stories of the era.
However, they said that the various characters that did not contribute much made the story "a bit of a jumble", and the fact that the serial was elongated by an episode had added padding.
Club reviewer Christopher Bahn described it as "one of the series' most genre-breaking and forward-thinking stories", with the various elements "creepy and frightening" rather than played for camp.